Varget powder question

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OK first post in the reloading forum so be gentle.
Ok so I have been reloading 9mm and .45 on a rock chucker and lee 1000 for a bit. I am just starting to reload .223 on the single stage and have picked varget powder based on readings here. With .45 and 9mm the powder did not fill the cases any where near "case capacity" which is what I expect. With the varget 25.5 gr nearly fills the case to where it seems the bullet will be a tight fit with the bullet seated. 25.5 is the min load per the load data. This concerns me.
I have zeroed my scale and re-weighed. Please educate me.

First off I don't have any load data in front of me, so I can not say that you are at a starting load. I THINK I am a little lower but I am away from my data at the moment. Where did you get the data,what bullet weight and type, and finally what case are you using?

.223 and Varget will give you a full case or a compressed load. Did you use a drop tube to fill the cases? This will help settle the powder. If you are using military cases then you may have to back down a little. Military cases have less capacity.

I&#8217;ve been loading a lot of .223 using Varget. I&#8217;ve been working up a load for my wife&#8217;s Savage bolt gun. In fact I just loaded some this morning. 25.5 gr. and 26.0 gr. to see which if either perform best with a .55 gr. SNSP bullet. I loaded from minim to max and 25.5 and 26.0 shoots best and perform pretty closely in this particular rifle. In my Lyman manual, for a 55.0 gr. bullet 25.0 gr. is minim and 27.6 is maxim. Yes Varget does fill the .223 case nicely. 27 + comes right uo to the top and will be a compressed load. In fact 26.0 puts powder right to the top of shoulder / base of the neck.

I got the load data from the load data included with the lee die set. The Varget container listed 27.5gr which is the max load according to the lee data. My speer manuel#14 lists 25-27gr. This is for 55gr bullets using cci400 primers. Brass is mixed collection of once fired xm193 and xm855 5.56 brass with some remington .223 in the mix as well.

Powder compression is not that big a deal in rifle rounds, depending on powder of course, & desireable in most cased. My most accurate loads come form slightly compressed charges. Varget is not particulalry fast for the 223. You can use a drop tube to offer more uniform compression, but you should be fine.

OK first post in the reloading forum so be gentle.
Ok so I have been reloading 9mm and .45 on a rock chucker and lee 1000 for a bit. I am just starting to reload .223 on the single stage and have picked varget powder based on readings here. With .45 and 9mm the powder did not fill the cases any where near "case capacity" which is what I expect. With the varget 25.5 gr nearly fills the case to where it seems the bullet will be a tight fit with the bullet seated. 25.5 is the min load per the load data. This concerns me.
I have zeroed my scale and re-weighed. Please educate me.

Click to expand...

Redbird,
Fred is spot on. I load a ton of 223 with Varget. 25.5 is a good load. Don't worry about compression. I'm using a Lee Classic Turret and with the Auto Disk. My drops vary from 25.4 to 25.6 under a 55 grain FMJ at 2.200" Nice light load for plinking and steels and also cycles my AR very reliably.

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